Family Court Consumers Group appalled at legal rort

A
National Family Court Consumers Group is appalled at the
negligent performance of a Lawyer for Child who represented
a child for 10 years, meeting the child only once during
this time, yet determining critical Family Court decisions
for the child, in the absence of considering the child's
views in the process, as required by Section 6 of the 2004
Care of Children Act.

Gabrielle Wagner was appointed as
Lawyer for Child (LFC) in 2002, soon after the child was
born.

A host of Family Court hearings ensued over the
following 10 years, in which substantial care decisions were
made for the child - yet Wagner refused to regularly meet
with the child as the child got older, managing just one
brief meeting in 10 years.

"This is a shocking case of
representative neglect of a child, and a damning indictment
on the lack of accountability that exists in the NZ Family
Court regarding taxpayer funding of LFC representatives"
said Steve Taylor, Convenor ofwww.nzfamilycourt.com

"Essentially,
what we have here is a taxpayer-funded Lawyer in Gabrielle
Wagner showing up at various Court Hearings who is
hopelessly under-prepared and ignorant of her clients actual
on-going needs, and then making decisions on behalf of the
child and the family that in no way represents the best
interests of her client, the child in
question".

"Recently, the child was assaulted by the
child's father via strangulation, a Police call-out ensued,
the child was removed from the fathers care by the Police &
CYF, and placed in a safer environment. Gabrielle Wagner's
response was to opine that the child should not have been
removed by the Police & CYF, because the father had been
awarded interim care by the Family Court. Such a response
flies in the face of the evidence of the risk to the child
at the time the uplift took place, and borders on
ideological Sociopathy" said Mr Taylor.

"Stunningly, the
child was then returned to the fathers care four weeks
later, despite the child having the option of a safe care
environment with the child's mother, and this was decision
supported by Lawyer for Child Gabrielle Wagner".

"Such
decisions simply contribute to the on-going rise in child
abuse in this country, and it is time for a Independent
Royal Commission of Enquiry into the NZ Family Court and its
practitioners, because sadly, these stories continue to
emerge, even under the new regime of the recent Family Court
Reforms" said Mr Taylor.

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